(You're reading all posts by Eli Milchman)

About Eli Milchman

When he was eight, Eli Milchman came home from frolicking in the Veld one day and was given an Atari 400. Since then, his fascination with technology has made him an intrepid early adopter of whatever charming new contraption crosses his path — which explains why he's Cult of Mac's test editor-at-large. He calls San Francisco home, where he works as a journalist and photographer. Eli has contributed to the pages of Wired.com and BIKE Magazine, among others. Hang with him on Twitter.

LAS VEGAS — It’s a bit odd to be thanked for cussing; but that’s exactly what STM Bags owner Ethan Nyquist did when I walked over to the STM table during a press event at CES. Apparently he was considerably impressed with an enthusiastic exclamation I made about STM’s bags, in response to the announcement of one of their new backpacks*. Hey, what can I say — I’m a bag junkie, and I get passionate about stuff I like.

So here then, is a prediction: STM’s new Drifter will deepen the outfit’s rep as a maker of stellar bags.

Wonderful. But would we really end up using this stuff? I mean, yeah, we probably would. But not every day. Probably not every month. On the other hand, TYLT’s Energi 2K — a wall charger with a USB port that also houses a battery — is the kind of brilliant idea that we imagine we’d actually want to use every day.

I’m not sure I get the whole camo thing. But it’s everywhere, it’s really popular and people can’t get enough of it. Trucks, iPhone cases, curtains, lingerie — if it exists, it probably comes in camo. (Note: If you need camouflaged lingerie, you’re probably doing it very wrong. Or very right. I’m not entirely sure at this point.)

The little dots on the sensor’s face are lights that tell you whether the sensor is connected, or if the battery is low. Photo: Eli Milchman

LAS VEGAS — Rather than come out with a more casual-oriented wearable fitness tracker like everyone (and we mean everyone) else, Wahoo stuck to its athletic roots and took the more serious route of improving the heart-rate monitor strap and accompanying training software the company introduced a few years ago.

In fact, Wahoo has created three new versions of its Bluetooth HR strap. The company even tried to restructure the way athletes think about training with the new “burn or burst” approach for the Wahoo iOS app.

LAS VEGAS — It was only a matter of time before the behemoths of the fitness world jumped into the fitness-band fight; although considering Garmin has been making wrist-borne fitness gadgets for ages (in the guise of their Forerunner line) one might have expected their new Vivofit to have arrived much sooner.

LAS VEGAS — For years now, Olloclip has been making stellar lenses that slip over the iPhone’s camera lens and enhance iPhoneography with the ability to take fisheye, telephoto and macro photos. But there has apparently been a struggle within Olloclip about whether or not to offer an iPad lens. Now the struggle is over, and iPad-loving photographers have won: The first Olloclip lens for iPad will be available soon.

Chong Pak, the company’s design director, told us there were only a few hurdles to clear before Olloclip went iPad — but those hurdles were tall.

LAS VEGAS — Shure has hit the extremes lately in terms of how much they think music lovers are willing to pay for headphones and earphones, but their latest in-ear monitors cost just $50.

The new SE112s are just half the price of Shure’s previously cheapest IEMs, the SE215, and only $20 more than Apple’s iconic, earbud-ish EarPods. It’s quite a change for Shure: Earlier this year, the company came out with the ultra-high-end, $1,000-plus SE846 canalphones. And their exotic, carbon-fiber SRH1540 headphones arrived just a few months ago at a robust $624.

LAS VEGAS — With the throng of tech bloggers covering CES, it’s not often that the heavily covered show hands us a surprise — but here’s one.

Netatmo, the French outfit best known for its fancy cloud-connected micro/personal Weather Station (and now also a device that measures your level of sun exposure), is about to add a hard-core new component: a rain gauge.

The CycleNav: Putting the “win” back in “Schwinn.” Photo: Eli Milchman

LAS VEGAS — Remember the Hammerhead? It’s a device that attaches to your bicycle, links to the GPS on your phone via Bluetooth, and guides you along a pre-chosen route by flashing a left or right light when you need to turn.

Schwinn‘s new CycleNav does one better. Like the Hammerhead, it attaches to your bike (via quick release) and flashes an LED light to alert you to an upcoming turn. But it also speaks voice-guided turn-by-turn navigation to you through a speaker, just like your iPhone does.